The board

One canvas per Live set with every module, port and cable. Open it from any Bleep plugin's window (it opens with the window, or comes to the front).

Adding things

Add (top left, or right-click on empty space) opens the Add menu:

• Module › one submenu per category: Sources, Modulation, Audio, Effects, Utility, Controllers, Sequencing and Drums. Each has subcategories, e.g. Sequencing › Melodic and Sequencing › Drum.
• Cell › New Cell, New Voice Cell, and your cell presets by category (Synthesizers › Basic Poly comes with Beautiful Bleep).

Tab (or a double-click on empty space) opens a search at the cursor instead. See Voice Cells for polyphonic synths.

Patching

• Drag from an output (the dots on the right of a node) to an input on the left of another node. Inputs that can't take the signal fade out.
• Drop on a knob in an open module view to modulate it. Every knob is a destination. The modulation is an offset: the knob stays where you put it, and a ring shows the value really used. The chip under the knob sets the cable's amount (drag up or down, double-click for 100 %).
• Drop on a node to pick one of its knobs from a list.
• Drop on empty space to add a module that is connected right away.
• Click a cable to set its amount or delete it. Drag a cable's end at an input to move it; drop it on empty space to remove it.
• Several cables into one input are added up.

Cable colours: yellow control, green gate and trigger (dashed), blue pitch, red audio, purple notes. Notes only connect to notes.

Module views

Click a node to open its view: knobs, settings and its own displays. Views float over the board; open as many as you like, drag them by the title, pin them (📌) to keep them open when you enter or leave cells.

Module presets

Most modules with sound-shaping knobs (oscillators, filters, effects, envelopes, drums, …) have a preset bar at the top of their view. It looks the same in every module:

• ‹ › step to the previous or next preset. The name in the middle opens the list, which has two parts: Factory presets that ship with Beautiful Bleep, and User presets that you saved yourself. A dot (●) next to the name means you changed a knob after loading the preset.
• Save keeps the current settings as a preset of your own: type a name and press Enter. If the loaded preset is one of yours and you changed it, Save overwrites it. In the menu, × (click twice) deletes one of your presets.
• Factory presets can't be changed or deleted. To build on one, load it, change it and save it under a new name.
• Reset to defaults (at the bottom of the list) puts every knob back.

A preset sets the module's own knobs and settings, never its cables. Modules that keep a pattern or other content in their view (sequencers, for example) save that content in your own presets too. Modules like the Patch Bay, meters and mixers have no presets. Your presets are shared by all your boards and live next to your cell presets (in the folder Module Presets).

Cells

• Add → Cell → New Cell or New Voice Cell places an empty cell.
• Select nodes, right-click and choose Create cell (⌘G) or Create voice cell. Cables that cross the new border become the cell's jacks.
• Drag nodes onto a cell to move them into it; the cell lights up when it takes them. Cables to the rest of the board become cell jacks (an input that already carries the same signal is reused).
• Inside a cell, right-click a node → Remove from cell moves it out next to the cell; its cables are rerouted over cell jacks. Cables to Voice In and Voice Out can't be kept.
• Double-click a cell to enter it; Esc or the path at the top leads back out. Inside, Cell In and Cell Out are the cell's jacks: drop a cable on their new input / new output row to add one.
• ⌘⇧G ungroups a cell again.
• Right-click a cell → Save as preset to keep it in the Add menu for every set: Add → Cell → . Your own presets can be deleted there under Delete preset.

Shortcuts